Norbert Michelisz has started to build a gap over Yann Ehrlacher in the drivers’ standings after winning the first KUMHO TCR World Tour race of the day at Vallelunga, where his only real threat came from his BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse teammate Mikel Azcona.
Michelisz battled his way around the first few turns of the Piero Taruffi circuit side-by-side with Azcona, while Audi driver Frédéric Vervisch had a great launch from fourth on the grid and was straight past Thed Björk’s Lynk & Co and was briefly battling the Hyundai cars.
As the race settled down, the two Hyundai drivers began to pull away, while Vervisch was a clear second, with Björk just keeping back the second of the Comtoyou Racing Audis of Rob Huff. Michelisz’s closest title opponent Ehrlacher managed to make his way past teammate Santiago Urrutia for sixth on the opening lap, with Urrutia then falling behind Néstor Girolami’s ALM Motorsport Honda at the Turn 11 hairpin.
Four laps before the end, Aurélien Comte’s CUPRA Leon stopped on the track with a technical issue, putting a close to the Frenchman’s brilliant race that had seen him passing John Filippi and Ma Qing Hua, moving into P9 just behind Kobe Pauwels.
During the closing laps, Vervisch began to close in on leading Hyundai pair, putting pressure on the two drivers for all of two laps before the Belgian suddenly slowed with a technical issue, and fell all the way down to the final points-paying position of 15th.
This put Björk back on the podium, while the Hyundai Elantra cars of Michelisz and Azcona crossed the line side-by-side in a triumphant display, three seconds up the road.
Michelisz now leads the standings by 30 points (as much as one race win) over Ehrlacher, with Azcona now up to third in the standings, seven points further behind.
The second race starts at 16:00 local time/CEST, with Ma Qing Hua and John Filippi sharing the front row of the top-ten reversed grid; live streaming on tcr-series.tv and YouTube.
Vallelunga – Race 1
1. Norbert Michelisz (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 14 laps
2. Mikel Azcona (BRC Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N), 0.564
3. Thed Björk (Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL), 3.040
Championship points
1. N. Michelisz, 139 pts; 2. Y. Ehrlacher, 109; 3. M. Azcona, 102
Picture: WSC Group
